1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interactive communication network-based marketing system and method, and more specifically, to a system and method in which a web site and live program are arranged in the form of a game which captures marketing data from system users and promotes those products and services which are favorably viewed by a corresponding demographic community.
The present invention further relates to a system and method for referencing consumer preference data and merchandise and service “popularity” according to human physical and emotional characteristics, traits and personal preferences. In essence an animate, or “HUMAN” cataloging and method/system for researching and locating purchasable items and preference data, rather than an inanimate one. This system and method would preferably be Internet based, presented as a special Internet address and destination, comprising a “search engine,” or searching means based on “searcher” or Internet user supplied human trait and preference data parameters.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many Internet sites, i.e., web sites, provide limited services and limited entertainment options due typically to site configurations based on singular or limited objectives. The value of an audience from a target demographic participating in a single site cannot be underestimated nor should it be narrowed to such limited objectives, services and benefit to site users.
The number of site participants, the time the participants spend at a single site and the degree of interactivity with the site have typically been the key variables exploited from the perspective of the site participant (user).
Increasing potential revenue, services and entertainment value to the user beyond those variables must therefore lie in creating a multi-leveled, or multi-dimensional site.
In cooping various media to create a new multi-media venue, a target demographic can potentially be sampled with startling speed and with unfaltering accuracy. Existing sites and attempts at “convergence” between television and the Internet have failed to exploit the cooping potential of these media. Also, the demographic sampling potential for a variety of information needs, including product and service preferences, has been all but untapped to date.
The present invention involves a new multimedia venue to sample, sell, educate and entertain both site users and television viewers having a common demographic.
Current “e commerce” or computer based electronically transacted business options, and related inventions thereof, are limited in scope typically with regard to the indexing and cataloging of merchandise and services. Further, “search engines” familiar to Internet users, are limited often to search results based on correlation between words or phrases submitted by the user, relative to those assigned to Internet accessible sites and data banks.
In a society of individuals who make many decisions based on dynamics of personal competition and success, and interpersonal comparison, the need for a searching means to reference information based on traits and preferences of other individuals, and groups of individuals, would clearly be valuable and of interest to many. The most compelling lure of entertainment and advertising, is information about other individuals that might be considered “private” or personal, whether they be celebrities or not. Television programs and advertising that is “revealing,” especially those focused to the negative feelings and occurrences of others, are remarkably successful: “Rubber-necking” on a highway also demonstrates the public's often macabre fascination with the plight or misfortune of others. The same can be said with the public's fascination with the success of others, mostly relative to their own circumstances and personal esteem.
The means to search personal preference and “feelings” data of actual individuals, would allow the Internet user new options in discovering the behavioral and purchasing preferences of individuals similar to themselves, or similar to a person or “type” of person relevant to the user: Those of romantic interest to an internet user/searcher, and those who the Internet user may be competitive with, are two examples of searching parameter bases that may be relevant to a particular individual searching via such newly available means. Further, peripheral areas of interest may be discovered by users as they discover selected personal data about their designated “types” of people-leading Internet searchers to revelations steered by the options displayed by such a system and searching means.
For Internet advertising, the relevance of being able to target user determined and defined micro-demographics is invaluable. A searcher who has defined their own dynamics demographically, in order to accomplish their search, could receive selected advertisements in editorially prepared formats, to maintain the highest degree of personal relevance and potential interest, unlike the generally poorly focused myriad of solicitations broadcast to millions of Internet users and mail box holders.
To date, all demographic specific devises on the Internet are geared to “sampling” and looking at the Internet users from the data-seekers' vantage point. The present invention addresses the interest and need of the Internet user to personally discover discreet demographic preference and behavioral data relative to their own personal objectives and interests: An active demographic specific vehicle from the consumers' point of view, instead of a passive one where their activity and data is sampled and they are categorized and solicited according to the interpretation and interests of unseen others—typically larger Internet based firms and advertisers.